A porcupine’s right to live

Last week, eight teenagers killed nearly a dozen porcupines and no arrest has been made. It has been reported that the porcupines were clubbed to death along the border of Albany and Schoharie counties, near Middleburgh.

No arrest has been made in this case because an arrest cannot be made in this case. Why? The porcupines do not have rights. None whatsoever. State officials from the DEC office told local law enforcement that the animals are considered to be “nuisance wildlife” and there is no law against killing them, although that may not be necessarily true.

According to Sue McDonough, retired NYS Police BCI Investigator who focused on animal cruelty issues for over 26 years, charges could and should be brought. Since the porcupines were not creating a nuisance at the time they were clubbed to death, the callous teens had no legal justification for what they did.

“Therefore, for these teenage boys to drive around seeking out porcupines who I believe were bothering nobody, only to savagely club them to death, would constitute animal cruelty, in violation with NYS Ag. & Mkts Law 353. Otherwise, a long list of wild animals who are considered a nuisance by the DEC could be killed by anyone at anytime, and this would set a very bad precedent,” says McDonough.

These living, breathing beings were not being a nuisance to the teenagers who decided to kill them for fun. And what’s more, with no repercussions for the gruesome and deadly act, the notion is solidified in the heads of these and every other young person that free-for-all killing of wild animals is perfectly legal. We need to take responsibility of what we are teaching our youth and that means we need to take responsibility for how animals are treated.

We need to change the way we think about animals as a society.

This sick act should have consequences. These animals are only considered a nuisance because we have decided to dominate. Again, this incident (another horrific one) should give us pause. We need to rethink our relationship with other species. We need to rethink the reason they are on this earth. It’s the same reason why we are here. To live.

Nicole M. Arciello

9 Responses

In my nearly 50 years of being an outdoors type of person (hiker, camper, etc), I’ve only seen maybe one or two porcupines. Heck, I would have said that they are nocturnal. Did these kids use a special “bait” to attract them?

As a dually permitted wildlife rehabilitator and ‘nuisance’ wildlife control operator, my understanding of the wildlife regulations is that certain ‘nuisance species’ are not protected giving property owners the right to kill ‘nuisance’ wildlife in the event that the animal is causing property damage or threatening human safety. Even then, there are methods considered acceptable for such killing. These kids are not, in my opinion, covered by this regulation as they were not protecting their property. It is unfortunate that no one seems to be properly citing or interpreting the NYS Environmental Conservation Laws in this case. If anyone in a position of authority is reading this – please use your given authority to cite these (likely) future human abusers before it is too late!

Sadly, the cruel killing of the porcupines has been going on in the Hilltowns of Berne and Schoharie County for years. I live where this happens and around me this is being done on state land; so no justifiable nuisance reason for this to happen. These are kids out of Middleburgh and when they can’t run the porcupines over with their vehicles they use their own specially designed club. What is equally sad and disappointing is that there are friends and families of these kids who must know that they do this and never did anything to end it.

This behavior is outrageous and should be punished under animal cruelty as a felony.
Studies have shown young people who can kill with such violence and no remorse will turn to other species to kill in such manner and eventually kill humans and many end up being serial killers.
Especially if there is no repercussions for their actions. By not arresting and sentencing them they are being informed that their actions are okay and they will keep pushing the boundaries until they are stopped. But by then a human will probably lose their life to these killers.
They are showing psychopath behavior and must be arrested have a record and their behavior monitored for increased violence.

I think that arresting these teens is warranted because they definitely violated animal cruelty laws. Eight teenage boys randomly driving around with homemade clubs looking for things to kill would make me think they also need psychiatric evaluations. If I was their parent, I’d insist on it! Then I’d make them drive around with a bucket and a shovel & pick up all the roadkill in their area and bury it . Sick kids with definite problems.

The problem is often that even when animal abusers are arrested, judges give them minimal consequences. Our society needs a total reassessment re: how wildlife is treated. Bow hunters wound deer up to 50% of the time and the deer are never found but go and die long painful deaths. But that doesnt even enter into the the hunters thought process. The time for less than 3% of the population to dictate wildlife policy should end now

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